January 15, 2012 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
NOAA Fisheries today announced final quotas and management measures for the Atlantic mackerel fishery for 2013-2015 and the final quota for the butterfish fishery for 2013.
At the recommendation of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, the butterfish quota will be increased by 1,698 mt (295 percent increase over last year's quota). As a result, for the first time since 2001, there will be sufficient quota to make it economically viable to directly target butterfish. To prevent overfishing, some other measures are being proposed to control fishing effort including changes to trip limits and the trigger for determining when to close the directed fishery.
Through this action, the butterfish mortality cap will also be increased by 1,299 mt (141 percent increase over the 2012 butterfish mortality cap). The increased butterfish mortality cap will allow the longfin squid fishery to fish longer and obtain their full longfin squid allocation.
The Atlantic mackerel quota is unchanged from 2012 and is being implemented for 3 years, from 2013 through 2015
Effective Date: Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Read the offical announcement here